Silas was born in 1956 in Hall Beach, the son of two artists, Joanasi and Martha Kayakjuak. Silas learned to carve at an early age by watching other family members carving. He began to carve at the age of eight and produced his first serious carving when he was twelve. Natural talent, a keen eye for balance and movement in the human figure, experience of hunting and living on the land combine to give Silas’s work an appealing warmth and charm.